Favouritism rules the roost in PCB

ISLAMABAD - The PCB has announced the names of the probables for the upcoming series against New Zealand starting by the end of this month. There is no surprise for the cricket lovers in the selection of squad, as one thing is sure that the International Cricket Council is poking nose into PCB’s team selection-related matters. PCB Chairman Ijaz Butt is looking helpless in playing his due role. During the team’s tour to England, three players including the then captain Salman Butt, Muhammad Aamir and Muhammad Asif were spotted baselessly in a match-fixing scandal by a British tabloid, The News of the World, which is not the authentic paper to be trusted upon. If someone is accused of any wrongdoing, then it is the responsibility of the accuser to prove its claim in the court of law. But in this case nothing has been proved so far despite lapse of around three months. This looks a politically motivated move against the top Pakistani players who can turn the whole situation of the match individually, especially the match-winning bowlers Muhammad Aamir and Muhammad Asif. Both the players are the backbone of Pakistani bowling line-up, as the playing Pakistani bowlers are yet to fill their gap. As a matter of fact, their absence was witnessed against the Proteas where the bowlers struggled hard to bowl them out. This is a highly condemnable act of both PCB and ICC, as the latter suspended the players immediately without giving them time to prove their innocence and the former didn’t defend its key players wholeheartedly and rather succumbed to ICC pressure. The ICC shows double standard, if a Pakistani player is accused of doing something wrong, he is penalised without any hesitation and if an Indian player does the same, he is allowed going unpunished just because the influence of the BCCI, as one can see in the example of Suresh Riana who was caught red-handedly in Sri Lanka with a suspicious lady who had close links with the bookies. This is an unjustified act by the ICC, whose primary role is to apply rules without discrimination